Plans to combine the role of Police and Crime Commissioner with the mayoralty by 2020 were dealt a killer blow today (Tuesday).

The Labour-controlled cabinet at Coventry City Council met to discuss a range of issues, with the combined authority's second devolution deal one of the items on the agenda.

Back in July a rocky compromise was reached regarding the future of the Police and Crime Commissioner's office, with government proposals to combine the position with the mayoralty put on hold following disagreements among the constituent members.

Coventry City Council Leader George Duggins.

Coventry council leader George Duggins had suggested that two separate public consultations should take place on the proposals before a decision was made, whereas the timeline only allowed for one.

This resulted in a stalemate and promises to discuss the issue in more depth over the summer, with a view to reaching an agreement at the upcoming meeting on September 14.

However it now seems that no agreement will be reached.

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At the cabinet meeting, Coventry council officially recommended that two consultations take place regarding the PCC's position before the board be allowed to vote on it; one on the principles of the proposed governance model and one on the operational proposal.

This means that Coventry expects both consultations to take place before it will vote in favour of a process to combine the two positions.

However, as one Home Office official made clear at the board meeting in July, there simply is not enough time to hold two separate consultations.

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At the meeting, the Home Office revealed that they were already working on a tight deadline to allow the legislation to be ready for 2020, with a comparable move in Manchester being given five times as long to be completed.

Original plans would have allowed for one eight-week public consultation regarding the combination of the two positions.

The developments mean that Coventry will not vote in favour of any process which does not allow for two consultations to take place.

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Coventry could be overruled at the board meeting on September 14, with a majority all that is needed to take the process onto the next stage.

But, ultimately, every constituent member of the Combined Authority must agree on the proposals before they can be passed. This means that, after discussion today, Coventry would almost certainly veto any proposals it did not agree with, making it impossible for the measures to be passed.